Terms of use — Vardum

1. Definitions

"App" or "Service" means the Vardum mobile app for iOS.
"Operator" means the individual sole trader who operates the App from Australia.
"Account" means your access to the App, using a sign-in label and password the App derives from your 24 words on your device, or, for accounts created before October 2026, an address-shaped sign-in label you chose, without contact verification.
"Vardum ID" means the public cryptographic identity label derived on your device.
"Relay" means the App's server-side storage of sessions, envelopes and related records, on servers the Operator owns and operates.
"Content" means everything you send, receive, store or create with the App: messages, media, notes, vault contents and steganography outputs.
"Claims Register" means the public register stating the honest status (Implemented, New or Not claimed) of every security claim.

2. What the Service is, and what it is not

The Service is a privacy-focused messaging and private-storage product. Its current features include end-to-end encrypted ephemeral messaging with hybrid classical-plus-post-quantum key establishment (ECDH P-256 with ML-KEM-768; X25519 signed prekeys for contact sessions); post-quantum groups with key epochs; identity pinning and contact sessions; client-encrypted vaults, including optional hidden volumes; client-encrypted notes; steganography tools (resistance to statistical steganalysis explicitly not claimed); one-time device transfers; and optional app-lock, decoy, duress, self-destruct and Nothing-at-Rest protections.

What the Service is not:

It is not an emergency-communications channel. It cannot reach emergency services, and it makes no uptime promise.
It is not a device-security product. It does not control your operating system, other software on your device, screenshots, device backups or swap.
Its cryptography is self-reviewed. An independent cryptographic audit is planned but not complete; the Claims Register states the scope and limits.
Sign-up needs no phone number or email. Network and routing metadata remain observable, as described in the Privacy policy; no metadata-free or network-invisibility guarantee is made.

3. Accounts and eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the App.
No phone number, email, one-time code or two-factor contact verification is required. Your 24 words are the only recovery path: keep them private and safe.
Sign-in is protected by a server-side lockout: five failed attempts lock the account for 10 minutes, and fifteen failures from one network lock that network for 15 minutes. The Operator may refuse sign-in for that reason.
Each conversation is cryptographically bound to the device that opened it. If you lose a device or clear the App's storage, its conversations generally cannot be continued elsewhere; the device-transfer feature is the only supported way to move them.

4. Acceptable use

You must not, in connection with the Service:

Use the Service for any unlawful purpose, including to create, store, send or distribute child abuse material, material promoting terrorism or violent extremism, threats or menace, or content that infringes another person's rights (including defamation and copyright infringement).
Harass, stalk, menace or abuse any person, or otherwise breach Australia's Online Safety Act or equivalent laws.
Distribute malware, or use the Service to attack any system.
Probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the Service or its servers, or attempt unauthorised access, except as permitted by the Responsible disclosure policy or the Operator's prior written consent.
Interfere with the Service: overload it, circumvent rate limits, or scrape it with automated tools.
Forge identity material, or abuse out-of-band verification to impersonate another person.
Circumvent security features, or help anyone else to, including the app lock, duress protections, delivery holds or expiry and burn mechanics.
Share invitation links, passphrases or device-transfer links beyond their intended recipient. Anyone holding them may be able to use them; that risk is yours.

Because the Operator cannot read your Content, it generally cannot detect breaches of this section itself. That does not make them permitted. Disclosures that come to the Operator's attention, including through lawful requests, may lead to suspension or termination.

5. Anti-obstruction and online safety

Vardum's duress, emergency-wipe and deniability features exist for personal safety and privacy: protection from theft, coercion and unauthorised access. You must not use Vardum to destroy, conceal or make inaccessible anything you know may be required in connection with a legal proceeding, investigation or lawful order. Destroying evidence and refusing lawful access orders are serious criminal offences in Australia and most jurisdictions.

You must not use the Service to create, store, send or distribute child sexual abuse material or abhorrent violent material. Accounts found doing so are terminated. Where a report identifies an account or such material, the Operator acts on the account and passes the report to the relevant authorities. Report abuse to support@tryveil.app or through Settings → Report a problem.

6. Your content and responsibility for it

You keep all rights in your Content. To the extent needed to operate the Service, you grant the Operator a non-exclusive, revocable licence to store, transmit, replicate (for delivery and redundancy) and automatically delete your Content as ciphertext, on your instruction, for the sole purpose of providing the Service. The licence ends when the Content or your Account is deleted, whichever is earlier.

You are solely responsible for your Content. The Operator has no ability to pre-moderate, review, edit or selectively remove Content, and exercises no editorial control over it. You must not use the Service to store or transmit unlawful Content, even though the Operator cannot see it.

7. Credentials, irrecoverable data and destructive features

Several protections are deliberately irreversible. By using them you accept their consequences:

No recovery for encrypted data: a forgotten vault passphrase or app password, or lost 24 words, mean the protected data is permanently unrecoverable, by you and by the Operator.
The duress password wipes your device keys and local state and deletes your relay records (identity records, sessions, vaults and notes), then shows a decoy. The account itself survives: restore your identity with your 24 words.
The self-destruct countdown, if you turn it on, wipes the App's data from the device after 14 days, the next time the App runs.
Nothing at rest and turning off history: once a message is gone from your device, it is gone for you; the Operator holds no copy it could restore.
Ending a conversation and deleting your account are permanent.

8. Security representations

The Service, including all security features, is provided "as is". The only security representations the Operator makes are those in the Claims Register. If any other description conflicts with it, the Claims Register prevails.

The cryptography is self-reviewed. Calling works on the same network only, with internet calling on the roadmap. Media is capped at 25 MB per file; groups support up to 100 members; and the forum has a separate 30-day message tier.

9. Intellectual property

The App's source code is published under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0) at github.com/VeilPrivate/VEIL, and your rights to copy, modify and redistribute that code are set by that licence. The Vardum name, logo and brand are owned by the Operator and are not licensed by the AGPL. Third-party open-source components remain the property of their authors and are used under their own licences. Your Content is unaffected by this section.

10. Self-operated relay and external dependencies

The Operator owns and operates the App's relay and this website. The relay stores and routes ciphertext without the device-held content keys. This website is marketing and documentation only, not a messaging client. App distribution (Apple's App Store and TestFlight) and push-notification delivery are external dependencies with their own availability and practices.

The App requires a supported iPhone. Some features, such as Security-chip key storage, depend on device capabilities your iPhone may not provide; the App tells you when a capability is unavailable.

11. Encryption laws, export controls and sanctions

The App implements standard, publicly documented cryptography. To the extent Australian export-control law applies to the Operator's distribution of the App, the Operator is responsible for meeting those obligations. You are responsible for complying with the laws of your own jurisdiction about the import, possession and use of encryption, and with sanctions and export laws that restrict your access to the Service. The Operator may block access where required by law.

12. Fees

The Service is free of charge during the TestFlight beta. At launch, the App is a one-off payment of A$14.99, stated clearly before you pay.

The Operator may in future offer optional paid features, such as additional storage. Any such feature will be optional, its price and billing terms will be shown before you agree to pay, and these Terms will be updated before it is offered.

Under the Australian Consumer Law you may be entitled to a remedy if the Service fails to meet a consumer guarantee. The refund approach will be stated alongside the price at checkout, and this section will be updated when payment is switched on.

13. Availability, changes and discontinuation

There is no uptime or availability guarantee. The Service may be slow, interrupted, suspended for maintenance or security reasons, or discontinued. Features may change or be removed. Where practicable, the Operator will give reasonable notice of significant changes inside the App. Settings → About shows which build you are running.

14. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service and delete your Account at any time (Settings → Delete account).
The Operator may suspend or restrict your access, or end these Terms with you, if you materially breach them, if required by law, or to protect the security or integrity of the Service or its users.
Because Content and keys are end-to-end encrypted, suspension or termination may make your Content unrecoverable. This is inherent to the design, not a penalty.

15. Deletion and what survives it

Deleting your Account permanently removes the records it owns and destroys your device keys. It cannot be undone. Some traces can survive deletion: operational logs and backup copies, unreferenced encrypted bytes pending cleanup, device or operating-system artefacts, and anything recipients still hold. These boundaries are also described in the Privacy policy and Claims Register.

16. Australian Consumer Law

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) or any other law that cannot be excluded. To the extent permitted by that law, the Operator's liability for a breach of a non-excludable guarantee (apart from liability for death or serious personal injury caused by negligence) is limited, at the Operator's option, to re-supplying the relevant part of the Service or paying the cost of having it supplied again.

17. Exclusion of warranties and limitation of liability

Subject to the Australian Consumer Law section above, the Service is provided without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. The Operator does not warrant that the Service is secure, defect-free, uninterrupted or fit for any high-risk use.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Operator is not liable for loss or corruption of data (including data made irrecoverable by the design of the Service); loss of privacy; loss of profits, revenue or business opportunity; indirect, special or consequential loss; or any loss arising from defects in the software, your device's security or the Operator's infrastructure, whether caused by negligence or otherwise.

The Operator's total aggregate liability for everything connected with the Service, to the extent it cannot be excluded by law, is limited to the amount you paid for the Service in the 12 months before the claim.

18. Indemnity

You indemnify the Operator against claims, losses, costs and expenses arising from your Content or your breach of these Terms, subject always to your rights under the Australian Consumer Law and to any liability the Operator cannot by law shift to you. This indemnity does not apply to the extent a claim arises from the Operator's own breach of these Terms.

19. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Australia, including the law of the State of Queensland. The courts of Queensland, Australia have exclusive jurisdiction over disputes arising out of or in connection with them. Before starting proceedings, you agree to try to resolve the dispute with the Operator directly first.

20. Notices

Notices to the Operator must be in writing to support@tryveil.app. Service notices are given in the App or on this website; the Operator has no contact address for you and never contacts a sign-in label.

21. General provisions

The Privacy policy is incorporated into these Terms and governs how information is handled.
The Operator may assign these Terms, for example on a sale of the business. You may not assign your rights under them.
If any provision is invalid or unenforceable, it is severed and the rest continues in force.
A failure to exercise a right is not a waiver of it.
These Terms, with the Privacy policy and the Claims Register, are the entire agreement between you and the Operator about the Service, to the extent permitted by law.

22. Changes to these Terms

These Terms may be updated from time to time, with a new effective date shown at the top. Material changes will be surfaced in the App. Continuing to use the Service after the effective date means you accept the revised Terms; if you do not, delete your Account before that date.